Bob The Schmoozer Romanced The Critics

TOM JICHA COMMENTARY

July 29, 2003|TOM JICHA COMMENTARY

Bob Hope would have loved to have worked the phones for this story.

Hope did specials for NBC for almost 50 years. Before each, he would have his representatives call TV writers pitching one-on-one interviews. Market size and circulation were of no consequence. If you were willing to interview Bob, he was anxious to talk with you.

More than a few critics, even the jaded ones, after their first call from Hope, couldn't wait to brag to friends, "Hey, you'll never guess who I talked to today."

A veteran trouper, who had worked his way up from vaudeville, Hope appreciated the value of publicity. Every couple of years he would even have NBC bus the critics, during the semi-annual press tours, over to his house for a meal and chit-chat.

The writers reciprocated in 1992, inviting him to the Television Critics Association annual dinner to accept a career achievement award. Bob wasn't at the top of his game healthwise by then and his representatives warned that he might not be able to make the ceremony. They underestimated Hope. No way he was going to miss shmoozing with more than 100 critics. Maybe the only thing that would have been more important to him was sharing the holidays with thousands of troops far from home.

Bob was always ingratiating, armed with a couple of jokes specific to a critic's newspaper or region. "Hey, I hear you guys down there in Florida have yachts as big as palmetto bugs." Imagine, Bob Hope acting as if you were important.

In fact, one small paper in the Midwest was so impressed that an entertainer of Hope's stature would deign to talk regularly to its TV writer that when the woman died, her obituary began, "Mary Smith (not her name), who frequently spoke to Bob Hope, died yesterday."

There's no arguing with the results. Hope's TV specials on NBC routinely were Nielsen chart-toppers. A couple of them rank among TV's 30 highest rated shows, up there with Super Bowls, Roots and the Beatles on Ed Sullivan. Hope's talent and personal appeal were, of course, the primary reasons. But good press never hurts. It's a mark of the man that even in the era of tabloid journalism, he was immune to bad press and scandal.

The late Brandon Tartikoff, who became legendary programming NBC in the '80s, wrote in his book The Last Great Ride that of all the memorable milestones in his career, he felt really important when, after lunch one day at Hope's home, the comedian invited him into a huge vault, where he proudly showed off tens of thousands of jokes, catalogued to subject matter, geographical relevance, etc. Hope never wanted to be lost for a good line, no matter the guest or occasion. Tartikoff said it was like being taken into the confidence of an idol.

There were down periods in NBC's history when Hope and Johnny Carson kept the lights on. Interestingly, it was on Carson's Tonight Show that Hope drew a line on his availability.

The ultimate sign of making it as a comedian was to have Johnny invite you to come over and hang on his couch after your bit. Hope never missed a visit to Carson during the week preceding his latest special. However, he came on, did his pitch and left. Bob never loitered on the couch and Carson, a control freak when it came to his program, never objected. This, after all, was Bob Hope.

There might never be another like him.

Tom Jicha can be reached at tjicha@sun-sentinel.com

HOPE JOKES

More than 89,000 pages of Bob Hope's jokes -- most of them written by an army of other people -- have been preserved in the new Bob Hope Gallery at the U.S. Library of Congress, available online at loc.gov/exhibits/bobhope.

From classic double entendre to politics, wars, sexual liberation, golf and movie stars, they capture a changing America. Here are a few:

"Wine, women and song have been replaced by prune juice, a heating pad and The Gong Show." (1980)

"I feel very humble. But I think I have the strength of character to fight it," (1963, on being awarded a Congressional Gold Medal by President John F. Kennedy)

"I went to play golf and tried to shoot my age, But I shot my weight instead." (1984)

Military bases

"I guess I have my critics everywhere." (In Saigon where a bomb blast went off at his hotel just before checking in.)

Presidents

Jimmy Carter: "Carter wants to go to Washington. He'll feel right at home there -- he was raised on a nut farm."

Ronald Reagan: "Some people are claiming that Ronald Reagan is too old to be president. But I like Ronnie. He's smart, he's honest, and he's the only candidate who calls me `Sonny.'"

Oscar jokes

"Welcome to the Academy Awards. Or as it's known in my house -- Passover." (1968, opening the Oscar ceremony. Hope won five "special" Oscars but none of them for acting.)

QUOTES

"Bob Hope not only entertained millions for decades, but we could also see that he was entertaining himself."